TSA Worker Gets 2 Years for Planting Logic Bomb in Screening System

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TSA Worker Gets 2 Years for Planting Logic Bomb in Screening System

A former TSA worker convicted of planting a logic bomb on a system used to screen airline passengers was sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay about $60,000 in restitution to the TSA.

Douglas Duchak, 46, had worked as a data analyst at the TSA's Colorado Springs Operations Center, or CSOC, since 2004. He planted the malware in late 2009, after the agency gave him two weeks' notice that he was being terminated from the job he'd held for five years.

The CSOC screens airport workers who have "access to sensitive information and secure areas of the nation’s transportation network," and also identifies passengers who have a warrant out for their arrest, according to authorities. The CSOC network stores updated information from the government’s terrorist watchlist, as well as criminal histories from the U.S. Marshal’s Service Warrant Information Network.

Duchak’s job was to update the CSOC database as new information arrived from these two sources.

About a week after learning about the fate of his job, surveillance cameras caught Duchak entering the facility after hours. Malware was injected into the system the same evening.

On Oct. 22, Duchak transmitted the malicious code onto a CSOC server that stored data from the U.S. Marshal's Service, according to authorities. The next day, he loaded malicious code to a server containing the Terrorist Screening Database.

The malware was a logic bomb that was designed to cause damage and disrupt data on the servers at some future date. It was found on the system by other workers, however, before it was able to deliver its payload.

Duchak pleaded guilty last October to one count of intentionally trying to damage a government computer.

At his sentencing on Tuesday, he reportedly apologized tearfully for his actions. His attorney explained that Duchak's wife had been pregnant with their second child when he learned his job was going away. The judge acknowledged that Duchak's work history had been untarnished, except for this single incident.

In addition to two years in prison, he was given three years probation and ordered to undergo mental health treatment following his prison sentence.